Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create an account.

Did you know that these all-volunteer forums are operated by the 501(c)3 not-for-profit Society for Culinary Arts & Letters? This holiday season, consider a tax-deductible Quick Ten Bucks to support the eG Forums and help us remain completely advertising-free. Thanks to all those who have donated so far!

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

One of my favorite uncles used to live in Delray Beach, and he wrote interesting and educational letters about the agricultural productivity of Palm Beach County. You're in a good place for CSA and locavore eating.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

A bag of salad greens, five ears of corn, four slicing tomatoes, a bag of cherry tomatoes, two red bell peppers, and a small head of broccoli. I also have a watermelon left over from last week and some acorn squash from two weeks ago. Should be eating pretty well this week...

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Can you tell us a little bit about how your CSA works? Do you have any choice in what you get or do you just take whatever they give you? I've never been involved with one, but it's always intrigued me.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Re: the CSA. The one I belong to has a few options - you can get a large or small box, and weekly or biweekly. I get a small box weekly. They will bill monthly, but they give you a discount if you pay for the season in advance, so that's how I did it. You get what they give you, although you can specify likes and dislikes - my only "dislike" is green bell peppers, so when they have those they substitute something from my "like" list in my box. Also, you can order extras from a list they post every week - these are things that they grow or get from other nearby farms but don't have enough to put in every box.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

I agree with the green bell peppers! That's exactly the thing I was curious about -- if you could ask not to have something and it's nice that the sub something you do like. I'll have to look into it a little more closely in my area. Thanks.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

I love Indian food. Do you find yourself relying on nearby restaurants for certain cuisines (like Indian), or do you make your own sometimes? I'm guessing that you have a broad selection of restaurants close by where you live.

re: Indian food - Yes, I do like to make it myself - I cheat using spice packets like these instead of buying, grinding, preparing, measuring from scratch. My favorite things to make are dal makhani and saag paneer. But I'm a sucker for a good buffet lunch now and then.

re: local restaurants - I relocated here in June so am still finding restaurants - haven't really become a regular anywhere yet.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Love the pool side al fresco dinning. You would have to drag me kicking and screaming to move further north than Tampa Bay. When it gets below 50f here my wife and I talk about moving south. The diving is also much better down your way. Did some drift diving off of WPB a few years ago. Nice to pop up from 90ft and still be able to see people on the beach. If I'm diving to 90ft around here, it was a long time since I saw land.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

I apologize to all who wanted cocktail umbrellas; I looked today but neither the liquor store nor the grocery store had any in stock. At least I mixed a drink in which such an item would not be out of place.

I would have taken it out by the pool but the clouds are looking a bit threatening, and while I do like pina coladas, I don't especially care for getting caught in the rain.

re: Indian food - Yes, I do like to make it myself - I cheat using spice packets like these instead of buying, grinding, preparing, measuring from scratch. My favorite things to make are dal makhani and saag paneer. But I'm a sucker for a good buffet lunch now and then.

re: local restaurants - I relocated here in June so am still finding restaurants - haven't really become a regular anywhere yet.

Thanks for that information about the spice packets. Those are new to me.

your spice pack ref is interesting. have you ever found Patak or similar jared ( not canned ) spice mixes?

Funny you should mention those, rotuts; tonight's dinner was based on Patak's Mild Curry sauce! I bought it on a whim some time ago. We both liked it a lot...enough to figure we'll keep it on hand routinely, and enough that I, the cook, have been declared A Genius.

OK, back to the blog. Munchymom, if it isn't too personal: are you cooking for yourself only, these days? And what led you to your current location? (If you'd rather not answer, a Lofty Silence is just fine.)

Similar Content

We are at the airport waiting to board our flight. As we seem to have interested folks from different parts of the world who may not know too much about our province, I thought I would start this blog by giving you an overview of Newfoundland and Labrador (NL).

Before Newfoundland became part of Canada in 1949, it was a British Colony. Cupids, a town on Conception Bay, was settled 406 years ago, and is the oldest continuously settled official British community in Canada. Most of the early permanent settlers came from southwest England and southeast Ireland although the French also settled here and in the 17th century Newfoundland was more French than English. French is still spoken in Port au Port Penninsula, on the western side of the island, with English spoken everywhere else. Just off the coast of south west Newfoundland, St. Pierre et Miquelon are islands that are still a colony of France. There is a regular ferry service between Fortune, NL and St. Pierre et Miquelon.

Geographically, the capital of St. John's is on the same latitude as Paris, France and Seattle, Washington. In size, Newfoundland and Labrador is a little smaller than California, slightly bigger than Japan and twice the size of the United Kingdon. NL covers 405,212 sq. kilometers (156,453 sq. miles) with over 29,000 kilometers (18,000 miles) of coastline. By itself, the island of Newfoundland covers 111,390 square kilometers (43,008 sq. miles).

The population of NL is 510,000, of whom 181,000 live in St. John's. While there are some larger towns, vast areas are sparsely populated.

In Newfoundland there are no snakes, skunks, racoons, poisonous insects or arachnids. There is also no ragweed - allergy sufferers rejoice! There are over 120,000 moose and it is home to one of the world's biggest caribou herds. They also have some of the continent's biggest black bears.

Note: This information was taken from the official Newfoundland and Labrador web site.

We had a wedding in the US but her family also wanted to have a traditional wedding in China. DH and I have never being to China so this was an exciting opportunity for us! We spent a few days in Beijing doing touristy stuff and then flew to Hailar. There is only one flight a day on Air China that we took at 6 in the morning. Yakeshi is about an hour drive from Hailar on a beautiful toll road with no cars on it. I wish we took pictures of free roaming sheep and cows along the way. The original free range meat.

The family met us at the airport. We were greeted with a shot of a traditional Chinese spirit from a traditional leather vessel. Nothing says welcome like a stiff drink at 9 AM. We were supposed to have a three shots (may be they were joking) but family took pity on us and limited it to one only.

Wow, this is my third foodblog for the eGullet…. Welcome! I'll be with you from Palm Sunday through Holy Sunday to give you all a taste of the veritable food festival that is Easter in Ecuador. As usual, I intend to eat on the streets, visit a plethora of small shops and vendors, and talk about (and eat copious amounts of ) the specialty dishes of the holiday.

A bit of background on me and where I am. I'm Elizabeth; I'm 33 years old and since the last foodblog I've ceased to be a Canadian expat in Ecuador, and become a full-fledged Ecuadorian citizen. I run a catering bakery out of Ambato, and I deliver to clients on the entire mainland. I've got a large customer base in nearby Baños de Agua Santa, a hot-springs town about an hour downslope of me to the east; I'll be visiting it on Wednesday with close to 100 kg of baked goods for delivery. Ambato, the capital of Tungurahua province, is located almost exactly in the geographic centre of Ecuador. It's at an average elevation of 2,850 meters above sea level (slightly higher than Quito, the capital) - but this is measured in the downtown central park, which is significantly lower than most of the rest of the city, which extends up the sides of the river valley and onto the high plain above. We've got what amounts to eternal late springtime weather, with two well-marked rainy seasons. Ambato has about 300,000 people in its metro area; it's the fourth largest city in the country. But maybe the most important thing about Ambato, especially to foodies, is that it's a transport hub for the country. Anything travelling just about anywhere has to pass through Ambato on the way; it gives us the largest, best-stocked food market in South America. I have simply staggering variety at my fingertips.

This view, which was a teaser for the blog, was taken from my rooftop terrazzo. It is a fraction of the panorama of the river valley that I see every morning, and since Easter is traditionally somewhat miserable weather-wise, the clouds stick to the hilltops. The barrio you can see in the middle distance is Ficoa, one of the most luxury districts in the city. Ambato is notable amongst Ecuadorian cities for having small fruit farms (300-500 m2) still operating within city limits and even within its most established barrios - it's from this that the Ambato gets one of its two sobriquets: The City of Fruits and Flowers. The tendency for even the poorest barrios to take tremendous pride in their greenspaces gives the other: The Garden City. My barrio, Miraflores Alto, is a working-class mixture of professors and labourers, and my neighbours keep a mixture of chickens, turkeys, and ducks in their yards; someone down the hill has a cow that I frequently hear but have never seen. Consequently, if the season is right I can buy duck eggs from my neighbours (and if the season is wrong, entire Muscovy ducks for roasting.)

Today, I'll be doing my largest fresh-food shopping at the Mercado Mayorista, the largest market of its kind in South America - this place covers nearly 30 square blocks, and it exists to both buy and sell produce from across the country. Sundays and Mondays it also opens up to a huge, raucous farmer's market where smaller quantities are available for purchase. Sunday is the day of the freshest food and the largest number of vendors. And I'm going to cross more than half the city to get there - I've moved since the last blog, and my new house, on the slopes of the river valley is further away than the old one on the high plain. I promise to take many pictures of this - particularly close to the High Holy days, the Mayorista is alive with vendors and there will be special sections cordoned off for sales of bacalao, truly enormous squashes, and if it follows the previous years' trends, a festival of Hornado (about which more later). Apart from mangoes, which are just finishing up their season, it is harvest time across the country, and the Mayorista will be well stocked with all manner of fruits and vegetables.

To start us off, I'll demystify one of my teasers a bit.

The Minion head that peeks out of my cupboard every day belongs to my jar of ChocoListo, the Ecuadorian equivalent of chocolate Ovaltine. Since I gave up coffee for Lent, it's my go-to morning beverage. ChocoListo normally comes in the plain white jar with orange lid that you see in front of the Minion; that's now my hot chocolate jar because I just couldn't resist when the company came out with the specialty jars. I firmly believe that one is never too old to have whimsical things!

Good morning, y’all, and welcome to the party chez Therese.
As per the teaser, this week’s foodblog does indeed come to you from Atlanta, where I live with my two children (hereafter known as Girl and Boy) and husband (hereafter known as The Man). Girl is 11, Boy is 14, and The Man is old enough to know better.
Atlanta’s huge: the total metro population is about 4 million, and there are no physical boundaries to growth like rivers or mountain ranges, so people just keep moving (and commuting) farther and farther out of town. Atlantans can be divided into ITP (inside the perimeter) and OTP (outside the perimeter), the perimeter referring to the interstate freeway that encircles the downtown area and surrounding neighborhoods, separating it from outlying suburbs. The politically minded may note that these areas could be designated red and blue. I’ll let you figure out which is which.
We’re about as ITP as it gets, with home, work, school, and restaurants all in walking distance. The neighborhood’s called Druid Hills, the setting for the play/movie “Driving Miss Daisy”. The houses date from the 1920s, and because Atlanta has so little in the way of “old” buildings the neighborhood’s on the National Register as a Historic District. Charming, sure, buts lots of the houses need some updating, and ours (purchased in 1996) was no exception. So we remodeled last year, including an addition with a new kitchen, and this week’s blog will look at the finished product.
So, some encouragement for those of you presently involved in kitchen renovation, some ideas for those who are considering it.
But never mind all that for the moment: What’s for breakfast?

Dutch babies, that’s what. And even better, these Dutch babies are produced by my children, the aforementioned Girl and Boy. The first picture is right from the oven, the second is after the somewhat messy job of sifting powdered sugar on top. They are delicious (the Dutch babies, I mean, not the children) and a great weekend treat.

The Man drinks coffee in the morning whereas I prefer tea. He's not up yet, having played poker last night. I'm hoping he makes it out of bed in time for dinner.

I also eat fruit whereas he prefers, well, anything but fruit. This is not such a bad thing, as it means that I don’t have to share the fruit. Pomegranates are a pain to eat, but not so bad if you’re reading the newspaper at the same time. This one’s from California, but you can also grow them here if you’ve got enough sunshine (which I don’t).

This is VERY spur-of-the-moment. I was sitting here yesterday thinking of all of the canning etc. that I needed to do this week and I thought, well, why not ask you guys if you want to spend the week with me while I do it? I got the ok from Smithy so away we go!

This will not be nearly as organized as my first blog was. But, really, when does a sequel ever measure up to the first?

Most of you know all about me--if you missed my first blog you can read it here.

Nothing much has changed around here. Same furry babies, same house, same husband .

Right now we have field corn planted all around the house. In the outer fields we have soybeans that were planted after the wheat was harvested. Sorry for the blur....it was so humid the camera kept fogging up.

I just came in from the garden.

I snapped a few pictures....for more (and prettier) pictures you can look in the gardening thread. I always start out saying that I will not let a weed grow in there. By August I'm like..."Oh what's a few weeds" lol.

I killed the cantaloupes...and I tried damn hard to kill the squash lol.....sigh...squash bugs came early this year and we sprayed with some kind of stuff. WOW the plants did not like it, but they've come back and are producing.